Below you’ll see Orlando Bloom reprising his role as Legolas along with the Laketown warrior Bard the Bowman, played by Luke Evans. But what is Legolas doing in this film when he wasn’t in the original book?

Hes [elven king] Thranduils son, and Thranduil is one of the characters in The Hobbit,” said Peter Jackson. “And because elves are immortal it makes sense Legolas would be part of the sequence in the Woodland Realm.”

And what of Bard? “Bard is an interesting character, but [in the book] hes kind of a random character who comes in after the fact,” said writer/producer Philippa Boyens. “We take more time introducing him. We know from what follows that he was a father, so we [explore] that. I dont think we take liberties, because its all there in the storytelling.”